Class Divide

Jr. Howard Gillette

Description

Members of the Yale College class of 1964-the first class to matriculate in the 1960s-were poised to take up the positions of leadership that typically followed an Ivy League education. Their mission gained special urgency from the inspiration of John F. Kennedy's presidency and the civil rights movement as it moved north. Ultimately these men proved successful in traditional terms-in the professions, in politics, and in philanthropy-and yet something was different. Challenged by the issues that would define a new era, their lives took a number of unexpected turns. Instead of confirming the triumphal perspective they grew up with in the years after World War II, they embraced new and often conflicting ideas. In the process the group splintered. In Class Divide, Howard Gillette Jr. draws particularly on more than one hundred interviews with representative members of the Yale class of '64 to examine how they were challenged by the issues that would define the 1960s: civil rights, the power of the state at home and abroad, sexual mores and personal liberty, religious faith, and social responsibility. Among those whose life courses Gillette follows from their formative years in college through the years after graduation are the politicians Joe Lieberman and John Ashcroft, the Harvard humanities professor Stephen Greenblatt, the environmental leader Gus Speth, and the civil rights activist Stephen Bingham.Although their Ivy League education gave them access to positions in the national elite, the members of Yale '64 nonetheless were too divided to be part of a unified leadership class. Try as they might, they found it impossible to shape a new consensus to replace the one that was undone in their college years and early adulthood.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Higher education
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 11 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801456121
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

C L A S S D I V I D E

C L A S S D I V I D E YALE’64 A N D TH E CON FLICTE D LEGACY OF TH E S IXTI E S

H OWA R D G I L L E T T E J R .

CORN E LL U N IV E RS ITY PRE S S ITH ACA A N D LON DON

Copyrîght © 2015 by Corne Unîversîty

A rîghts reserved. Except for brîef quotatîons în a revîew, thîs book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced în any form wîthout permîssîon în wrîtîng from the pubîsher. For înformatîon, address Corne Unîversîty Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Fîrst pubîshed 2015 by Corne Unîversîty Press Prînted în the Unîted States of Amerîca

Lîbrary of Congress Cataogîng-în-Pubîcatîon Data Gîette, Howard, Jr., 1942– author.  Cass dîvîde : Yae ’64 and the conlîcted egacy of the sîxtîes / Howard Gîette Jr.  pages cm  Incudes bîbîographîca references and îndex.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5365-6 (coth : ak. paper)  1. Yae Coege (1887–). Cass of 1964. 2. Yae Unîversîty— Hîstory—20th century. 3. Yae Unîversîty—Aumnî and aumnae— Bîography. 4. Socîa change—Unîted States—Hîstory—20th century. 5. Unîted States—Socîa condîtîons—1960–1980. I. Tîte.  LD6329 1964c  378.746'746809046—dc23 2014042247

Corne Unîversîty Press strîves to use envîronmentay responsîbe suppîers and materîas to the fuest extent possîbe în the pubîshîng of îts books. Such materîas încude vegetabe-based, ow-VOC înks and acîd-free papers that are recyced, totay chorîne-free, or party composed of nonwood ibers. For further înformatîon, vîsît our websîte at www.cornepress.corne.edu.

Coth prîntîng

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Cover photo: Members of Yae’s Tîmothy Dwîght resîdentîa coege cîrca 1963 prepare for batte în the annua Tang Cub competîtîon. Photo copyrîght John Boardman.

For Ellery, Raffaella, and Raphael Felix, Jenny, Hugo, and Dexter

Contents

PrefaceiX

Introduction: What a Hinge Generation Can Tell UsXv

1. Bright College Years, 1960–1964 1

2. Into the “Long Sixties,” 1964–1974 33

3. Civil Rights 60

4. War and Peace 85

5. The Greening of ’64 117

6. God and Man 142

7. Sex and Marriage 162

8. Culture Wars and the University 191

Conclusion: After a Long Journey, a Lasting Divide 215

Notes229

Acknowledgments271

Index273

Preface

ometime in the fall of 2003 I received a phone call from S the deputy director of Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign. Had I trav eled to Mississippi with Lieberman in October 1963, he asked? I knew imme diately what was at stake: the need to counter media doubts that Lieberman had participated in the campaign to draw national attention to the blatant exclusion of African Americans from the right to vote. Forty years after the fact, Lieberman’s editorial, “Why I Go to Mississippi,” issued when he was chairman of theYale Daily Newsduring his senior year in college, still reso nated. Although he had been publicly silent about that experience for years, it resurfaced as a point of pride in 2000 when Al Gore selected Lieberman as his Democratic vice presidential running mate. Three years later, several news organizations were challenging Lieberman’s claim, and the candidate, not remembering whom he was with the week he spent rallying support for Mississippi Freedom Party candidates, was hoping I might have been one of them and thus able to verify his account. At Yale, I was a fellow member of the class of 1964 and managing editor of theYale Daily News, so Lieberman and I had worked closely together. A good half dozen of ourNewscolleagues did travel to Mississippi that fall, and it was reasonable enough to suppose I might have been among them. But I was not alone in finding the challenge to leave college for a week, to enter into a largely unspecified and inherently dangerous role, beyond me, and I did not go. All the more credit to Lieberman, and to our fellowNewsofficer and classmate Stephen Bingham, who was among the first to join the effort. Arrested and jailed on a false charge during his campaign effort in Mississippi, Bingham